January - The Birds!

‘Tiresias, grieve no more. From this day the deathless ones will speak to you in the song of birds.’

from Where Three Roads Meet, Salley Vickers

1st January

John and Clare have put their favourite photographs from 2019 on to the Gallery page of the website.

Clare sat in the hide for the first time and there were birds already interested and doing a recce. Two coal tits proved to be the boldest and risked feeding from the fat balls feeder. Result!

2nd - 4th January

Clare made daily visits to the hide and over these few days recorded 15 different species on or around the feeders. The most exciting viewing was two Marsh Tits, although for a while Clare havered in their identification between Marsh and Willow Tit, settling in the end for Mallow tit until she was more certain. She had seen a couple from her pop-up hide a couple of years previously but not one since. Apparently they don’t fly over open fields and since Liddells is surrounded by those these particular birds may have little option but to remain. And hopefully breed. The birds are definitely getting bolder, with a Nuthatch seeming to make the most individual visits, and so far a flock of eight Long-tailed tits being the most numerous species feeding at any one time.

5th January

Two further posts with feeders put up. Today’s treat was seeing a weasel emerge from brash in front of the hide.

8th January

Well it was inevitable - Clare heard a flurry of alarm calls and the birds vanished from the feeders followed closely by a Sparrowhawk swooping in front of the hide. No bird was harmed on this occasion. Clare saw a Marsh Tit on the feeders for the first time.

10th January

Another first for Liddells - Clare watched a male and a female Lesser Redpoll feeding on the nyjer seed. They stayed for several minutes at a time and made many visits during the hour and a half Clare was there. A wood mouse appeared from a hole near the tree trunk and after about seven tentative movements forward, its courage was rewarded as it returned to its burrow with a peanut.

11th January

Clare and John put up the last of the feeders - a slice of a felled tree trunk on top of a length of telegraph pole. Clare added some peanuts and seeds and birds were on it before she had returned to the hide.

12th January

Clare and John added signage for the route to the hide. John was amused that Clare had to go back to the drawing board with a couple of the signs as she had written them with the arrows pointing the wrong way. This served to confirm his belief that she has no sense of direction.

Two Marsh Tits arrived and fed today, and two wood mice benefitted from the food the birds drop on the ground.

13th January

Clare and Juno had a wonderfully messy time making bird food, mashing up a paste of peanut butter, pear, dried fruit and seeds and squishing it into pine cones, then making flour and lard ‘maggots’. They then went up to Liddells, helped finish the signage and watched the birds come and eat it.

15th January

Clare took two friends to visit the hide and was delighted that the Marsh Tit appeared; Sue wondered how Clare had been able to distinguish the bird from a Willow Tit. Clare mentioned the difference in the black ‘bib’ and the glossiness of the black on the cap and was just referring to the difference in call when the Marsh Tit obligingly called. Lesley thought it was a bit of witchery. There was another first - a Great Spotted Woodpecker appeared and did a recce of the feeders from one of the hawthorns close by. Clare is enjoying her new Bird Song App. Fans of The Archers may well think she is channelling Philip Moss . Clare believes it is the other way round however she would never describe herself as a ‘bird junkie’; the scriptwriters have been independent with that one. Also, to the best of Clare’s knowledge, no proposals of marriage, or indeed of anything else, have taken place in the hide at Liddells. Yet.

There may not be a coffee machine however Clare recognises that bird-watching is improved with the availability of a hot drink. And biscuits.

16th January

John took his camera up to the hide for the first time. The trail camera was doing a wonderful job of recording squirrels failing to get into the feeders, however this was at the expense of footage of the birds. Clare has set John the task of recording as many visiting species as possible.

Great Tit poised to eat some of Clare’s lard/peanut butter/dried fruit/pear/seeds paste

Female Chaffinch plucking up courage to visit the feeders

Robin apparently re-enacting one of the legends that seek to explain its colouring

18th-19th January - Green Gym Days

Clare had been saving a quotation for these two days. When she visited the hide, Sue B-H had shared words from Nan Shepherd (author of The Living Mountain) which are printed on the Scottish 5£ note. Clare heard: ‘It’s a grand thing to get leaves to live’, and immediately thought they were apt for the weekend plan to plant trees. When Clare looked the quote up, she discovered her unconscious hearing slip (or her deafness). The original quote is: ‘It’s a grand thing to get leave to live’. Both sentiments seem laudable.

The plan for the two days had been to plant the 22 trees (Sweet Chestnuts, Horse Chestnuts and Oaks) that John and Clare had grown in pots from seed, and to make a second woven Willow screen with cuttings from our neighbour Sylvia. Not only was all this achieved in fine style, with great good humour and a wealth of baked goods, but John M arrived with a further nearly twenty Oaks and Horse Chestnuts that he too had grown from seed and a bucketful of about 500 acorns. By close of play/work on Sunday, everything had been planted and Liddells now has two more Willow screens. These are so beautiful that Clare feels embarrassed about her first effort. All the screens will have chip on the membrane and edging logs put in place. Another Green Gym Day anyone?

The acorns were planted in the west end of the Scrub and along the Crag; the trees were planted on either side of the bottom roadway and at the east end of the Top Grazing.

As ever, Clare and John are touched by their friends’ generosity, hard work, good humour and general all round support. Fifteen people came and helped over the weekend, some on both days, including two new adult recruits and three children. John and Clare were particularly delighted to have children involved and hope for more of the same in the future.

…et voilå! Team 1 rightly proud of their screen

20th January

Jane E had taken some of the short Willow offcuts home after the Green Gym days, and this evening at choir, presented Clare with decorations she had made. They will look great in the shepherd’s hut.

23rd January

John and Clare saw a Goldfinch was on the nyjer seed feeder - another first for the feeding station. Clare returned home to discover she had dropped the disc from the trail camera.

24th January

John found the disc glinting on the ground today; Clare would like to think it was because of today’s OED Word of the Day - apaugasma: Something that shines with or reflects a brilliant light; radiance, splendid brightness.

25th January

Clare put Jane’s Willow decorations in the shepherd’s hut - they will be more aesthetically placed when the interior is finished. John and Clare planted a dozen Ragged Robin plugs round the big pond, saw two Goldfinches on the nyjer seed feeder, and a Bank Vole benefitting from seed spillage.

Seeing some damage on a Willow whip near the Scrub, John had thought the deer were fraying earlier than usual this year however trail camera footage might suggest that the culprit is a lagomorph (thanks to Clare’s brother-in-law Norman for extending the blog’s vocabulary with this word).

29th January

The wall on the south boundary has some damage, probably due to the trees that have grown up close to the wall since it was built. John and Mel set about repair work, then headed to the north boundary where several overhanging branches need removing. Clare meanwhile set about digging a drainage ditch that will take the water that trickles out of the new pond and which is currently making for a very muddy crossing place. After a couple of hours’ work in which nothing was as clear as mud, there was plenty of mud-slinging and she almost became a stick in the mud, she overrode the idea of stopping and very soon afterwards fell flat into the aforementioned ooze. She looked as though she had been dragged through the mud and decided it was not a lark. She then walked home looking very like a swamp monster. Happily no-one was on hand to document this experience.

30th January

The trail camera has been picking up very little footage of deer recently, however a last minute check before publishing this blog post showed a roe doe crossing the bottom path in the Pit Wood. The trail camera has been left near there to see if the kid is still around too.

31st January

In one month the following birds have been seen on or around the feeders:

Sparrowhawk, Pheasant, Woodpigeon, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Wren, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Goldcrest, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Marsh Tit, Long-tailed Tit, Nuthatch, Tree Creeper, Chaffinch, Lesser Redpoll, Goldfinch, Bullfinch.

Not bad for the first month! Clare is delighted. John is building his album of species.